1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure of invention relates to a touch sensitive panel and to a touch input/output apparatus having the touch panel. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to reducing cost and complexity of a touch panel capable of sensing multiple touches and a touch input/output apparatus having such a multi-touch panel.
2. Description of Related Technology
Recently, a display panel including an integrated touch panel has been proposed wherein a touch signal is inputted by a touch providing means such as a stylus pen, or a finger and so on without need for an additional separate input device such as a remote controller connected to the stylus pen. For example, a touch panel is integrally disposed on a display panel of a cellular phone, a computer monitor and so on and users may apply a touch signal with a finger or a simple stylus pen.
Touch panels may be classified as being of a capacitive type, a resistive type and an electro-magnetic (EM) type according to the touch sensing method used.
The conventional resistive type of touch panel generally has many wirings (interconnects) attached to it and many very narrow electrodes included in it. More specifically, the conventional resistive type touch panel includes an upper substrate on which many elongated narrow upper electrodes are formed and a lower substrate on which many elongated narrow lower electrodes are formed to cross in spaced apart relationship with the many narrow upper electrodes. Each narrow electrode has a pair of wires (or other interconnects) attached to opposed longitudinal ends thereof The upper substrate and lower substrate are disposed in spaced apart relationship one above the other.
When the upper substrate is pressed down upon by a stylus pen or a finger, the upper substrate deforms to make contact with the lower substrate. Then, the pairs of wires/-interconnects on the crisscrossing upper and lower electrodes are used to determine the resistance changes that have occurred as a result of the short circuiting contact made at the contact position. Various interrogation voltages or currents may be sequentially applied through the many pairs of wires/interconnects attached to each of the upper and lower substrates so that X and Y axis coordinates of the contact position may be precisely determined.
However, when there are so many narrow electrodes to be interrogated and the precise Y axis coordinate is to be determined by sequentially applying the interrogation voltages through the pairs of wires/interconnects to the upper electrodes and the precise X axis coordinate is to be determined by sequentially applying the interrogation voltages to the lower electrodes, driving time may be disadvantageously extended. In addition, as the size of the touch panel increases, the number of wirings that need to be connected to each of the upper and lower electrodes increases dramatically. The need for increased numbers wirings/interconnects may result in an undesirable increase in the width of a bezel of the display that covers the wiring connection points. The display apparatus may then be made undesirably wider or the increase of the width of the peripheral bezel may limit the effective display area of the touch-sensitive display apparatus.